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Like a Circle in a Spiral

by Fern Lindzon

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1.
Jazz at the Bookstore 04:49
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2.
The Windmills of your Mind 04:43
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3.
Mishaela 05:20
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4.
Carrie 06:18
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5.
Night and Day 03:48
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6.
A Malekh Veynt (An Angel Weeps) 04:23
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7.
Shashado/Loro 05:01
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8.
Papir iz Dok Vays (Paper is White) 04:32
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9.
Even Divas Get the Blues 03:58
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10.
What's Your Story, Morning Glory? 04:46
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11.
This Little Love 02:20
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about

Liner notes by Mark Miller:

By now, three CDs along in a fascinating recording career, it’s clear: Fern Lindzon is a musician who dances to the beat of her own heart.
Like a Circle in a Spiral is a remarkably personal statement, one that sustains the warmth and venturesome spirit of the Toronto singer and pianist’s debut release, Moments Like These, from 2008, and her Juno Award nominee, Two Kites, from 2011.
The new CD takes its title from a line in one of its key tracks, an exquisite rendering of Michel Legrand’s Windmills of Your Mind in which Fern sings with great care over a repeated, 10-beat melodic pattern that traces the cyclical movement evoked by the song’s central lyric image.
In this, Windmills of Your Mind is typical of the playful imagination and understated musical erudition that she brings to Like a Circle in a Spiral — typical of the allusions that echo back and forth between the words and her arrangements of the songs that she has chosen to sing.
And such songs. Such a range, such a wealth of riches — the work of writers as distinct in style and culture as, among others, the Frenchman Legrand and his American lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Brazil’s Egberto Gismonti, the Israeli team of Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Gil Dor, Canada’s Ron Sexsmith and the American Mary Lou Williams.
Fern has made them all very much of a subtle piece, both instrumentally and vocally. Beyond her usual harmonic and rhythmic intrigues, not least a gentle nod to the genius of Kenny Wheeler in A Malekh Veynt, her sense of “soundscaping” is especially striking; there are moments in the Israelis’ hopeful Mishaela and her own poignant Carrie where voice, or voices, vibraphone and soprano saxophone blend to almost ethereal effect, complemented elsewhere on Like A Circle in a Spiral by the earthier fundamentals that colour Sexsmith’s sardonic Jazz at the Bookstore and Williams’ yearning What’s Your Story, Morning Glory?
Fern offers these songs, and the others here, measured and at times even lingering performances. There is an affecting lightness and purity to her singing — whether sultry, wistful or serene, be it in English, Hebrew or Yiddish — and a thoughtful and equally unhurried quality to the contributions from her musicians, saxophonist David French, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, bassist George Koller, drummer Nick Fraser.
Gismonti’s vivacious Loro, framed by Fern’s own Shashado and featuring guest flutist Bill McBirnie, is one exception, and it must be said that Fern’s live performances of late have been a revelation in their boldness. But it’s a quieter sort of self-assurance that prevails on Like a Circle in a Spiral, the confidence of a musician who is secure in her sense of herself, her art and her craft.
By now, three CDs along, this too is clear.

Mark Miller
Author, jazz history and biography
Toronto

credits

released April 29, 2014

Fern Lindzon - piano & vocals
David French - soprano & tenor saxophone
Bill McBirnie - flute (tracks 5&7)
Michael Davidson - vibraphone
George Koller - bass
Nick Fraser - drums
produced by George Koller
arrangements by Fern Lindzon
recorded and mixed by Jeremy Darby, Canterbury Music Company
mastered by David Travers-Smith
cover photo by Peter Bregg
design by Susan Michalek

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Fern Lindzon Toronto, Ontario

Toronto jazz singer, pianist and Juno Award nominee Fern Lindzon moves comfortably and creatively through a highly-personal repertoire of her own arrangements of jazz standards, pop songs, Brazilian and klezmer/Yiddish traditions, as well as her own compositions — from Egberto Gismonti and Antonio Carlos Jobim to Thelonious Monk and Ron Sexsmith. . “A rare and fascinating talent.” ... more

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